God taking on flesh and
becoming man is known as the Incarnation. The Second Person of the Trinity, the Son,
while remaining fully God, assumed a full human nature. He took on a true human body, intellect, and
will. He was like us in all things but
sin (Hebrews 4:15). Belief in the true
Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of Christian faith. St. John begins his Gospel by proclaiming,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God…. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John
1:1,14). We also proclaim in the creed
at Mass, “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the
Holy Spirit was incarnate of the
Virgin Mary, and became man.” So, the
creed tells us that God took on flesh and became man for us and out
salvation. But we can ask further, why the Incarnation? Why did God become man? Our tradition offers us at least four
answers.
First, the Word became flesh for us in order to save
us by reconciling us with God. Being born in original sin, and falling into
personal sin, our communion with God was radically ruptured. On its own, humanity was incapable of making
a return to God, since the offense of sin was so immense, against an infinitely
loving God. In his love, God became one
of us to make that return on our behalf, to restore communion between humanity
and God. Only God himself could have
offered the perfect act of love and sacrifice necessary, but only from man was
this act due. In the God-man, the one
person Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, and can thus draw us back to
God.
Second, the Word became flesh so that thus we might
know God's love: "For God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Christ reveals the Father to us, and reveals that God is love. The cross is an ever-present sign to us of
the lengths our God will go to in love to bring us back into communion with
him.
Third, the Word became flesh
to be our model of holiness: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life;
no one comes to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Jesus translates the love of the Trinity into
human form for us. How are we to
live? Look at Christ. What does it mean to be human? Look to Jesus. What does it mean to love? Look at a cross. Christ reveals to us in human language the
depths of Trinitarian love: self-forgetful love that seeks the good of the
other. He does so most powerfully by
laying down his life for us.
Fourth, the Word became flesh to make us "partakers
of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).
St. Athanasius said, "For the Son of God became man so that we might
become God,” and St. Thomas Aquinas says likewise, "The only-begotten Son
of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that
he, made man, might make men gods.” Even
at our liturgy, when the priest places a drop of water into the wine, he says,
"By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the
divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity." This can sound very odd to us, almost
blasphemous. We don’t often talk about
this aspect of our faith, which is called divinization
or theosis. But the scriptures, the liturgy, and the
great saints of our tradition make clear: God became one of us to draw us to
become like him. Our destiny is to
become sharers in the Trinitarian life: an eternal, ecstatic exchange of
mutual, self-forgetful love. Through
grace, we will ultimately be healed of sin and elevated to participate in that
divine life. Through grace and the
sacraments, we can experience a foretaste of that even now.
Have a question about our
Catholic faith? Email mike@mikebrummond.com
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